I
' ' . L.~ ~IJ~.J& JlZ ~2~..:,~ ~.o..,,~,, .,,, .~.~.~ _,di~-~ ~ .-.
4i28i20t3 N
Smaii Town Papers-
2i 7 ~N Cota St
Sneiton Wa 98584
Hometown Newspaper of Judy Brown
Serving the Sweet Home communitY since 1929
Wednesday, March 21, 201.2
Vol. 83, No, 12
75 Cents
ruc
rnover
Firefighters examine an over-
turned truck near milepost 34 on
Highway 20 on Friday at about
4:16 p.m. The truck, driven by
Thomas Clarence Ew'alante n£
Shooting Star Transport, flipped
over when its load shifted while
negotiating a curve, losing the
load. The driver cut his hand get-
tmg out. He was cited/or careless
driving.
Photos by Sean C. Morgan
City: No tie to plumbing repair ads
By Scan C. M0raan
Of The New Era
The city of Sweet Home has
been receiving calls from confused
residents regarding an advertise-
ment by a compatly called Home-
Serve USA Repair Management
Corp., a company that has no ties to
the city, water and sewer utilities.
"We've had a lot of calls on
it." gald City Manager Craiz Mar-
tin. "It's a private company that
provides essentially maintenance
coverage for their water lines at
home."
The advertisement is an of-
ficial-looking document that asks
residents to ':please respond by" a
specific date.
It is similar to advertisements
in newspapers that are made to look
like news stories, Martin said. Such
newspaper advertisements typi-
cally have the words "'paid adver-
tisement" printed at the top of the
advertisement to differentiate them
from news stories.
The direct mail advertisement
• See Repair, page 8
Photo by Sean C. Morgan
Steve Holy, right works his way through his repertoire of hits at the La-
Sells Stewart Centerat Oregon State University Thursday evening during
the Oregon Jamboree's annual mystery concert. For more photos, see
page 8.
By Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Sweet Home has sent the city'
of Lebanon a bill for more than
$60,000 to cover training costs for
two police officers who left the city
to take better-paying jobs with the
Lebanon police ~OAlie[ UlIS yeizff.
City Manager Craig Martin
said the city sent the bill Dec. 22
after it became apparent that Leba-
non was hiring three Sweet Home
officers, including two who had
been trained within the last three
years.
'Justin lUleC~ubi3~n~. Taylor
Jackson and Chad Christenson
resigned in December to take po-
sitions with Lebanon. moves that
left Sweet Home Police Depart-
ment down four out of the 10 of-
ricers it had most of last year.
The fourth position was va-
cated when Officer Randy Gill
resigned, and the department was
planning to leave it open for bud-
getary reasons.
Their departures followed a
period of tense negotiations be-
tween the city and the Sweet Home
Police Department Emergency
Services Union. which ended in
early r, ovemoer when unton mem-
bers voted to approve an agree-
ment providing a 3-percent raise
for police and dispatch employees
for the 2010-11 fiscal year. no in-
crease in 2011-12 and a 3-percent
increase to salaries in 2012-13.
Their decision came after the
city found out that its police budget
would be $283.000 short, thanks to
declines in property values and in-
creasing tax compressmn that seri-
ously reduced city revenues.
Martin said the fact that two
of the departing officers were re-
cent trainees was the reason Sweet
• See Police, page 5
t
Incumbents, 3 newcomers elected to SHEDG board seats
By Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The Sweet Home Economic
Development Group elected three
new board members and re-elected
two incumbents last week during
the organization's annual meeting
held on March 14.
New SHEDG board mem-
bers included Cindy Glick, Phyllis
Osborn-Smith and Rachel Kittson-
MaQatish.
Kellie Kern and Carol Crom-
well were re-elected.
Other nominees included Joe
Graybill, Bryan Hayes, JoAnn
McQueary, Bill-Nyara and Nancy
Patton.
The 11 SHEDG board mem-
bers are responsible for oversight
and decision making for the non-
profit organization, which puts" on
the annual Oregon Jamboree coun-
try music and camping festival and
some smaller concerts, and uses
profits from those events to finance
econormc development in Sweet
Home,
Carol Cromwell
Cromwell is a lifetime resident
of the area in her 27th year at Linn-
Co Federal Credit Union, where
she is chief executive officer.
She holds an associate's de-
gree in accounting and a bachelor
of science degree in business man-
agement.
She has been a volunteer for
• See SHEDG, page 3
SHEDG board members elected Wednesday, March 14. include.from left,
Phyllis Osborn-Smith. Cindy Glick, Carol Cromwell and Kellie Kern. Not
pictured is Rachel Kittson-MaQatish.
Ex-teacher
gets 30 days
for sex abuse
Michael Joseph Morrell.
who was the business teacher
at Sweet Home High School.
was sentenced to two 30-day
jail sentences on Feb. 22 after
pleading guilty to two counts
of third-degree sexual abuse.
A third sexual abuse
charge was dbmissed as pan
of a plea bargam.
The sentences were to be
served concurrently.
• See Court, page 11
,I
